Alpha Course

DVD Course

Overview

The Alpha Course is designed to introduce non-believers, skeptics and even atheists to the Christian faith. It is also received quite favorably by those who have been Christians for some time. This 14 DVD session outline builds on the internal questions most people have roaming freely in their minds. The material covered includes the following questions:

Who is Jesus?

Why Did Jesus Die?

How Can I Have Faith?

Why and How Do I Pray?

Why and How Should I Read the Bible?

How Does God Guide Us?

Alpha Day/Weekend Away

– Who is the Holy Spirit?

– What Does the Holy Spirit Do?

– How Can I be Filled with the Holy Spirit?

– How Can I make the Most of the Rest of My Life?

How Can I Resist Evil?

Why and How Should I Tell Others?

Does God Heal Today?

What About the Church?

The course is organized with ten sessions and a retreat with four additional sessions in a weekend format.

Strengths

1. A strength of this material is found in the simplicity of the presentation. The “talks” are easy to follow, non-threatening, but challenging and are quite humorous at times.

2. Other strengths include small group discussion which foster relationships, as a follow up to the presentations.

3. The service format is informal (ie. no prayer to open the meetings).

4. The cost of the material is reasonable and includes many supportive resources.

Weaknesses/Challenges

1. A weakness of the Alpha Course could be in the number of volunteers needed to offer the course. However, because of the training given to these volunteers, it actually becomes a strength.

2. The one concern to some people might be the teaching on speaking in tongues incorporated in the session titled, “How Can I be Filled with the Holy Spirit?”. However, the teaching is balanced and not pushed as an “essential” experience.